not going to happen but my dream :

2013 - central coast and perth
2018 - ipswitch and wellington
2023 - png & adelaide
2028 - christchurch and PI team (tonga,samoa and fiji)

ie 24 teams

broken up into 2 conferences, one being the nsw teams and the other the expansion teams

each team plays home and away in each division (12 teams each, 22 rounds)

then have a top 5 finals systems for each division

winners of each division go to the grand final.

by being able to expand every 5 years thats going to increase future TV deals a lot, ignoring inflation on the existing viewers

in australia potentially we can add the following viewers - FTA / Pay TV

WA - 150,000 / 50,000
Adelaide - 100,000 / 25,000
Melbourne - 150,000 / 50,000
Queensland - 250,000 / 100,000

Despite having some knowledge of NZ and Wellington in particular I dont have enough understanding of the sport down there to offer a reasoned opinion

Maybe some from down there should consider the same before telling us ' up ' here how our sport should progress in the future

Are there enough quality players to maintain the high intensity of the NRL with so many teams?

3 years ago, but knowing the luvvly NRL, it will take them 10 years minimum.

WOAH WOAH WOAH Dally.

You spent AGES telling JB that Perth had absolutely no chance!
What changed your tune...

Ok....I have only been in Wellington for 12 months, but after watching the Local comp, the national Comp and wall to wall NRL/Toyota cup on SKY, I would offer this as an explanation as to why NZRL will concentrate on getting its own house in order before pressing for another NRL team. I may be well of the mark with cetain assumptions, but it is mainly based on published facts (warning. 9 meg)
The new 7 Regions are all now in place with only one area currently causing problems and new competitions successfully launched at senior and under age levels in 2010. The next steps will be to ensure that these comps continue to run well and the 7 regions all ensure they deliver the same basic message in promoting the game. It will take another 3 years minimum before a decision on the success "to date' can really be made. At this stage, I believe that if it has worked, the standard of teams will have improved to such a level that some NRL fringe players may be enticed back to NZ.

One of the issues faced by NZRL is a social one. When I first came to New Zealand as a tourist, I asked about League. The person I asked informed me that the League team in his town, Wanganui, had been moved 15 miles away due to a shooting incident. This answer was repeated to me on a number of occassions and after I went to the local library I disovered that a localised fued betwen Black Power and the Mob had ended with the death of a child in a drive by shooting......and because people involved were players on the team, a RL connection had been made....
When I started work here, I asked about Wainuiomata RL and was told not to park my car near the ground as there was "always" trouble after games........the same when I asked if Petone Panthers were a better bet to watch games.

The fact is that 90% of the players in the national and wellington comps (can't comment on other areas) are of pacific or Maori heritage and the culture of "big hits' sometimes enables people to settle scores on the field. I am not sure, but I believe that this "aggression", together with unhelpful journalism such as highlighted above is key in the current situation regarding getting fans to games.

This is one of the key areas that Jim Doyle and his team will be addressing over the next 3 years....the perception that League is a game played by thugs, associated with gangs and settling of scores.

My own experiences of League in the region this year have been nothing other than great. Great people running the game, great people running the clubs and friendly fans.......happy to have a dig about my beloved Quins RL being crap..... .

I would love to see a franchise in Wellington......but, as I have pointed out in other threads, sports fans in the region are fickle....and Union, soccer, netball, basketball are all suffering from "fanapathy" (copywrite pending ) and I believe that if a Wellington Orcas side were to become an NRL Franchise, then it would have to be with a backer prepared to underwrite the club for 5 or more years..and with an infastructure across all 7 regions that would support it and provide a good breeding ground for the players of the future.

So, that's how the land lies here at the moment. 21,000 went to watch the Kiwis beat England, showing that there are fans in the region, but there are 35,000 fans for the AB's when they play here and only 14,000 for the local premium Union team.....5,000 for the coccer team yet 35,000 for the All Whites.....Wellington Fans need to be courted to folloing league and I believe that 3 Warriors games a year need to played here to really gauge interest........

As I said, I may be wrong, but these are my thoughts on the matter.

Gutterfax is right on the money with much of what he has said.
I have lived in Wellington for most of my 37 years and the comments he has made regarding watching local rugby league and the violent behavior assosiated have been right on the mark in the past.
I live in Upper Hutt, home to the mighty Upper Hutt Tigers. At their home games the Mongrel Mob can be seen perched on the bank on one side of the field in a menacing way which will put off most casual fans from attending. I have worked with quite a few Tiger's players and they have all been great blokes and not gang affiliated but there obviously is another contingent that are. There were always stories in my youth of shootings and brawls involving spectators whenever the supremacy of the Wainui Lions was challenged. I'm not saying it was solely Wainui but being Upper Hutt's main rival for top spot (along with Randwick) in those days they were the stories you heard about.

However, I believe the winds of change are happening.
Rugby League is now in our schools, in my day there was no school rugby league teams, it was rugby or nothing and if you played club league on the weekends your first XV coach would probably drop you. Upper Hutt College just completing a 3rd unbeaten season in the Stephen Kearney cup and the aussie talent scouts are taking notice. The kids know due to Toyota Cup coverage and the many kiwis plying their trade there that there are career opportunities in league that are reachable to them. They also are being taught and see from the TV coverage that they can't do drugs and expect to be picked up by the scouts. This will no doubt flow through to the senior ranks with more dedicated players coming through rather than gang related thugs just trying to show how tough they are. But it will take years.

As for crowds well it's hard to say. Wellington has less than half the population of Auckland and while per capita certainly supports it's sporting teams better there is only so much money people have to spend. Christchurch has the same issue but without the competition of a semi-pro soccer team.

NZ rugby league is moving forward and certainly becoming more main stream, but there is a long way to go. I would love to see a team based in Wellington and think it would be great for the fans and the national side, but I suspect the money side of things would not stack up and at the end of the day it will always come back to that.

As I posted earlier , it is slightly different over there , it can get interesting to say the least , so the ' Mongrel Mob ' are still around , they were there when I attended Heretaunga college back in 75

Some on here will shoot you for that...but thanks anyway.

This was from 18 months ago but little since and with bids expected to be called for around March time it is doubtful one will come from Wellington.


While Wellington appears to be starting its run from behind, Hemson, Wellington Rugby League's ambitious general manager, said he'd had encouraging discussions with the NRL, Wellington City Council and Westpac Stadium over the last year.

Hemson said rather than trying to fight with the AFL in Perth or Adelaide, the NRL wanted to shore up its strongholds of Australia's east coast and New Zealand.

"We believe that for the long-term future of rugby league here there needs to be at least one other team out of New Zealand and we're working away on it at the moment.

"We've been keeping it low key because we want to get all our things lined up before we go public with it.

"There's been good support from Wellington City Council to work with us and the [Westpac] Stadium are obviously keen for it to happen as well."'"